Attractive Shapes
by blacksand1
Summary: Tak let out a malicious little giggle before answering cryptically, "I just want to talk. That's all." Some DATR, barely hinted ZAGR, rated T for safety.


He hadn't been pleased with that revelation in the slightest. No, when Dib had seen definite proof that the one person who both listened and cared, Tak, was what he had sworn to fight against, it killed a little piece of him. He masked it well, however. Ever since losing his mother, Dib had become accustomed to hiding what was going on below the surface. He knew that bottling things up would eventually lead to misery, but oddly enough he didn't much care and didn't know why he felt that way.

But what Dib _did _know was that he didn't want any reminders beyond Tak's ship of the alien girl. He had erased her personality for just that reason, but he could never get himself to stop calling it her ship and not his own. But his issues with Tak and all she had meant to him didn't extend beyond this for almost two years. Dib didn't really have much time to focus on such things anyways; he had an incompetent alien to chase, dammit!

On Valentines Day, two years after the fateful meeting he had with Tak, Dib skulked into his room with a particularly nasty frown on his face. Today had been crappy- crappier than normal, even- and if Dib was more physically strong he'd have punched a hole through the nearest wall to let out his frustration. Instead Dib settled for slamming his door and throwing a book out the window, not caring that it knocked a bird out of a nearby tree.

Right as Dib let out a frustrated grunt, his angry expression turned to one of shock when he heard a familiar accent remark in an amused tone, "Bad day, I assume." Dib whirled around to behold Tak leaning against his door, a conceited smirk on her face; Dib was in complete shock- not only had Tak updated her disguise so that she appeared about as old and as tall as he was, but she had gotten in there without making a sound… as if she had been leaning against the door the entire time.

"T-T-Tak?!" was the extent of what Dib could sputter. Utter disbelief had overwhelmed his capacity to form coherent sentences. Tak let out a short bark of a laugh as she flipped her short hair and shifted her weight so that she was standing on her left leg and rested her coordinating hand on the coordinating hip.

"In the flesh, darling," Tak replied teasingly.

"Wha- but- how?! How did you get- why are you here?" Dib was finally able to ask. Tak shifted her weight again and put a hand to her chin, her smirk gaining a sinister edge while her eyes were unreadable; the very fact Dib couldn't tell what she was thinking frightened him just a little bit.

"Dib, why was it that you had such a _horrible _day?" Tak asked, her voice equally unreadable. Dib frowned, he never liked his questions being answered with more questions.

"I'll only answer you if you answer me," Dib countered.

Tak let out a malicious little giggle before answering cryptically, "I just want to talk. That's all."

Dib stared at Tak for what was most likely two minutes before he answered, "Let's just say trying to save humanity from an alien menace is pretty difficult when everyone around you seems only to want you dead or miserable." Dib made sure to put as much venom on 'alien menace' as possible; he was never going to forgive her, no matter how much parts of him wanted to.

"Now, why save a species that doesn't deserve it? They obviously just want to see you broken and defeated," Tak continued, walking slowly towards Dib with her smirk growing wider.

Before Dib could answer, Tak remarked, "Maybe you're not doing this for the good of mankind after all."

"What do you mean," Dib snapped defensively. He then regretted the action as Tak stopped a foot from him, her smirk bordering on a grin. He had done what she wanted, and he tried to remind himself not to play so easily into her hands.

"Perhaps you're _not _out for some noble purpose such as saving these people," Tak mused, starting to walk in an almost predatory circle around Dib, "perhaps you're just a deluded fool who can't realize your pathetic planet isn't worth saving."

"I am _not _deluded! I know just how worthless these people are," Dib snapped. Tak paused in her circle and closed her eyes halfway as her smirk took on another wicked edge to its many dimensions. Dib cursed himself again for saying what she wanted him to _again_.

"Perhaps you're a bloody nutcase who's too excited that you've _finally _found your alien to notice his blinding incompetence," Tak continued.

"I'm _not CRAZY!!_" Dib shouted. He had heard that too many times, and from her it was almost one too many.

"Of _course _you aren't. In fact, perhaps you're a _selfish_ and _vindictive_ little boy who is willing to do anything to receive the praise he feels he deserves," Tak said, stopping right in front of Dib with a nasty grin. Her last claim cut Dib down to the core, and that cut was the final straw. Dib let out a wordless cry of rage and threw a punch right at Tak's face.

She didn't flinch, and she had reason not to; Dib's eyes widened behind their glasses as his fist flew through empty air. Tak was gone. She hadn't moved, and as he pivoted around he could tell that she hadn't used some Irken technology to teleport to another location in the room. It was as if she had simply blinked out of existence… like she had never even been there in the first place.

"Which one are you, Dib? And which one may you become? I know, do you?" Dib pivoted again to see Tak sitting in his windowsill, looking just _oh so pleased _with herself. Dib couldn't answer, for Tak disappeared once more, once again as if she wasn't ever there to begin with.

"Quit shouting! I'm trying to concentrate over here," Gaz snapped, opening the door a little bit to glare at Dib with her Gameslave 3 in hand. Dib just stared at her with his same haunted expression. Dib could see something flicker in her amber eyes, most likely confusion, before she slammed the door.

Dib tried not to think of the surreal and disconcerting encounter, and it worked until he was walking home from school with Gaz just a few steps behind him, intently focused on her game while Dib was intently focused on the route home, several days later.

"Ah yes, another day of pointless torment has concluded for Dib Membrane." Dib's eyes widened as he looked beside him to see Tak walking alongside him, stretching as if she had been sitting as long as he had.

"What the- how do you keep appearing like that?!" Dib exclaimed, pointing at the disguised Irken girl accusingly.

"Now, that _is _a very good question," Tak remarked with a smirk, "Which begs a few good questions as well."

"Why are you HERE?!" Dib demanded, wanting an answer for this more than he had ever wanted anything. Tak let out another malicious giggle before leaning close to his ear with a sinister smirk.

"Because you want me to be," Tak whispered.

"What do you- I don't-"

"Dib? What the Hell are you doing?" Dib turned to Gaz; the purple-haired girl had stopped in her tracks, both eyes open and focused on her brother instead of her game, odd enough on its own. Dib could see confusion, annoyance, and even some concern that he might've imagined in her eyes.

Tak's smirk widened, and Dib sputtered, "What do you mean 'What the Hell am I doing'?! Don't you see her?!"

"Dib, I've been looking at you for about ten seconds now," Gaz replied, "And all I've seen is you yelling at the air beside you." All Dib could do was stare at Gaz with a shocked expression. He couldn't be imagining this, he could feel her breathing when she whispered in his ear! He could've sworn she was real… couldn't he?

Tak disappeared right then, not to return for another few days. When she did return, Dib was lying face up on his bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling as he tried to ponder what was going on within his own mind. He felt the bed shift, as if someone had sat down beside him. Dib shut his eyes tight and bit his lower lip, trying to block her presence from his mind; she had to be some sort of advanced Irken hologram, or some sort of illusion. There was no other explanation Dib would allow himself to believe. Gentle fingers ran through his black hair with ease, which made Dib's claims of Tak being an illusion even harder to believe.

"You seem tense," Tak's voice observed. "Why?"

"As if you don't know," Dib scoffed.

"Is it me, then? That doesn't seem quite right," Tak mused, "I'm not the root of it. After all, I haven't been here for a few days now. More than enough time for me to hide in the dark corners of your mind." Dib didn't respond. He tried as hard as he could to shut her out, but it was failing. Her fingers caught on a stubborn knot and she worked to tease it out.

"I see, you confronted Zim again. You tried to finally catch him and just got humiliated again," Tak said. Dib could _hear_ her smirk, and it was infuriating.

"Why should you be hated for what comes naturally to you? Doesn't that seem unfair to you?" Tak wondered, leaning a little closer and lowering her voice.

"Funny thing for an illusion to say," Dib muttered, "Especially an illusion of _you_."

"An illusion, hm? Is that what you think I am?" Tak wondered with another malicious giggle. Dib wasn't sure if her laugh was beginning to grow on him, annoy him, or some combination of both at once.

"An illusion couldn't possibly know something only you know," Tak mentioned, "Like, for instance, that your mother died in a lab accident. You were devastated, so you locked every bit of pain and hurt away. You made sure this would _never _happen to you again, and you tried to get on with your life, though it wasn't easy. She was the only one who listened, who cared."

Dib's eyes widened in shock; he never told Tak about his mother, let alone how that changed him. The only way she could've known- no! She wasn't a figment of his imagination, she couldn't be! He _wasn't CRAZY!!_

"I'm not so sure that's correct," Tak mentioned, running the back of her fingers across Dib's scythe-shaped spike of hair.

"Why are you doing this?" Dib asked, finally looking up at Tak. Of _course _she was smirking.

"I'm doing this because you want me to," Tak replied, "I'm doing this because you _want _to be broken, you _want _to be insane."

"No, I don't- you're wrong!" Dib exclaimed. He wanted to move, to throttle the Irken female, but he felt paralyzed.

"I'm _right_," Tak insisted, "Being insane would give you all the liberty you want. You could finally get retribution, you could go after Zim and take down anyone in your way. It would feel incredible, now wouldn't it? People would fear you, possibly even respect you. You'd get what you want."

"No, no!! That's not what I want!" Dib shouted, covering his ears and shutting his eyes tightly again. He felt Tak run the back of her fingertips over his cheek ever so delicately, yet another giggle permeating the shields his hands created over his ears.

"Then what _do _you want, Dib?" she asked. "Be honest."

"I- I- I want…" Dib paused, and Tak milked that pause for everything it was worth.

"You don't even know. That's almost disappointing," Tak stated.

"I _do _know! I know exactly what I want!" Dib insisted, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than he was trying to convince Tak.

"If you did know, you'd have answered right away," Tak commented. Dib couldn't argue that part of that logic made sense.

"Go away, go away, go away go away go away GO AWAY!!!" Dib exclaimed, finally remembering how to move and throwing another punch where Tak's face would soon not be. As Dib expected, Tak disappeared without a trace. For quite a while afterwards, the Tak-shaped figment would keep appearing, but she wouldn't say a thing.

However, she always appeared whenever Dib's mental defenses fell just a bit, or when he had failed at defeating Zim, or when his peers were tormenting him; and she would smirk that sinister, malicious smirk. Sometimes she would even laugh. A few times Tak would say something too low for him to hear, and since Dib couldn't read lips he had no idea what she was saying. Her presence was enough to unnerve him, especially her silence after how chatty she had been before.

Almost a full year passed since Tak last spoke, but she decided to do so at a rather inopportune time. Right while Dib was in the middle of class- a class he shared with Zim, who sat on the complete other side of the room- Tak appeared leaning on the windowsill next to Zim. Of course, Tak had aged along with Dib, being now only slightly shorter than him and looking just about as old. This added to more evidence of her being a figment.

Mischief and sadism were playing about in her smirk, and Dib could only mutter as quietly as possible, "Oh God, not again."

"You know, Dib, you don't necessarily have to _expose _Zim," she remarked, "I mean, _you _know the truth. You could just capture him, dissect him, you could even kill him,. You could do whatever it is you wish."

"Go away," Dib hissed, trying to ignore Tak as best he could.

"He's sitting _right here_, why not just kill the _alien scum _right now?" Tak wondered.

"Go away, shut _up_," Dib growled, trying to settle for at least her silence if not her lack of presence. At least then he could interpret her motives any way he wanted to and possibly convince himself that she wasn't a hallucination.

"Come now, I'm just trying to give you _what you_ _want_," Tak said, putting as much emphasis on every word of 'what you want' as possible. "The safety of mankind through destroying this alien, yes?"

"Shut up shut up shut up," Dib whispered in a half pleading, half angry tone as he held his head in his hands. He couldn't afford to listen to her, she didn't know anything about him!

"Ah, yes, maybe I was right in assuming that all you want is praise and attention. That's why you must _expose _him instead of just killing him," Tak purred.

"SHUT. UP," Dib growled, clenching his fingers tightly in his hair and threatening to rip it out.

"How _pathetic_. You're playing your game for attention with the fate of mankind in the balance-" Dib would hear no more of this.

"_SHUT UP!!!_" Dib roared, jumping to his feet and throwing his now empty chair all the way across the room. Tak disappeared as the chair nearly hit Zim in the head and smashed through the window, sending broken glass flying all over. Zim plucked the broken glass from his forehead and ignored as his bright orange blood dripped down his face for everyone to see. All eyes focused on Dib, almost all of them fearful and Zim's the most.

Dib could feel Tak's presence behind him, but he just stared blankly ahead; he didn't need to face her to know that she looked how she always did.

"I think you should follow my advice more often. That was quite a _smashing_ sight," she mentioned, amusement clear in her voice. Dib fell to his knees and cradled his head in his hands as he shook with rage and shame; he couldn't take this, this was absolute torture.

Tak would continue appearing wherever she pleased, and frequently enough that it felt like she was never really gone in the first place. Every time she would bait Dib with his own insecurities, and though Dib tried to ignore her she always brought him to the point of violence. Sometimes she would actually let him 'hurt' her, but whenever she did it always meant that Gaz was about to discover him strangling the air.

The only time he was free was sleep. He hadn't been having dreams, and that was fine with him; quiet, calm, empty hours were better than ones full of Tak telling him how worthless he may or may not be. His constant outbursts of violence towards random patches of air had both assured his peers that he was crazy and frightened them as it rightfully should. Even Zim tried to come into contact with Dib less and less, though the alien seemed to be spending more time around his sister.

As Dib and his Tak-shaped figment grew to fifteen years of age, Zim also updated his disguise with a way to grow taller despite his Irken heritage sticking him with one height for life. Tak reasoned he spliced some of his DNA with human DNA.

"He's trying to deny his destiny. Maybe he doesn't seem to be doing that on the surface, but he is," Tak had said as Dib sat slumped over at his desk, his face flat against the table. The only illumination in his room was his desk lamp, and Tak was partially blocking that with her perch on his desk.

"Irkens are stuck at one height forever, it determines their social class and how you're treated. I'm not sure how it got that way," Tak elaborated. Dib smirked; he actually quite preferred it when Tak would sometimes go off on tangents about her people, it was a happy break from the norm. In fact, the first time she had appeared when he was working on her ship, she had been so amazed at seeing it again that all she talked about was how he had been maintaining it.

"If that's the case then why do you look like you're getting older along with me?" Dib asked.

Tak then smirked and whispered, "Because you want me to." Dib sighed, him wanting her to do this to him came up quite a bit lately. It was almost like she had certain themes for every day she tortured him. But he _didn't _want her to do this to him, this was painful and infuriating! However… she did know more about his subconscious than he did. She was a creation of it, after all.

"Exactly. I know more about you than you do, Dib," Tak confirmed with a smirk. "And I know that you want this."

"Why would I _want _something that's driving me insane?!?!" Dib shouted, clutching the sides of his head again.

"A very good question," Tak commented, standing up, "And one that deserves an answer. How about you give me your best guess?"

"… Maybe its because of everything I've kept in?" Dib guessed, sitting up with a questioning look. Tak shook her head, clicking her tongue as she walked around to stand behind Dib's chair. In a flash, Dib found his chair facing the opposite way with his Tak-shaped figment straddling his lap, her smirk right up in his face. She wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing herself even closer to him.

"I think it might be because you want _me_. You want the voices in your head to take on attractive shapes," Tak began. As Dib felt her even breathing and her weight on his lap, he could scarcely believe she was a hallucination.

She eased his arms around her waist and continued, "These hard truths, these questions about who you are, you're doing this to yourself because you eventually want to go mad. As I said before, madness will bring you freedom to do what you wish."

"Madness gets you locked up in a padded cell," Dib said matter-of-factly. Tak giggled her malicious giggle and ran her fingers down Dib's upper arm ever so delicately.

"It also makes you lose sight of your goal. You wish to rid the world of an alien menace, but look here," Tak added. "You have an 'alien menace' sitting right in your lap, and you're enjoying it." Dib's amber eyes widened behind their glasses; since he was the one making up this situation, that made sense…

"You're selfish, Dib. All you care about is what makes _you _feel good, and how _you _feel about yourself and the universe. That only works in Postmodern Existentialism, and that philosophy has never worked for anyone," Tak insisted, back to her guns of calling Dib worthless.

"No… No I'm not…" Dib whispered, though he knew she'd insist in some way that he was, while he looked down and away from her. Tak lifted up his face gently by his chin so they could lock eyes; Dib marveled at the fact that her touch was so gentle while her words were so harsh. Then, a little bit of surprise came to him; she wasn't smirking at the moment. In fact, her expression was completely impossible to read.

"You remember what I said to you when I appeared the first time, yes? I said you were deluded, crazy, or selfish. Now that I think of it, I wasn't so accurate in my thinking," Tak said, gently caressing Dib's cheek. "I think you aren't any _one _of those things."

"What do you…" Dib trailed off, because he knew she'd interrupt.

"Don't take that as meaning you're none of them. I think that you're a strange blend of all of them, with maybe something else splashed in there for flavor," Tak explained, her smirk returning.

"No- you've got it all wrong," Dib whispered, not even pretending that he was trying to convince her. He was trying to convince himself, and he knew it; that fact alone disheartened him all the more.

"Just give in, Dib. Everything will be so much _easier _once you admit to being a flawed human being like the rest of your species. I know _I _wouldn't resent you for it," Tak murmured. In her eyes was a mockery of kindness, and the two of them knew she had pushed him nearly to his wits end.

"Please… please… stop this. I can't take it, please, stop," Dib begged, bowing his head into Tak's chest to hide his slowly forming tears. This psychological torture he was apparently inflicting on _himself _had overwhelmed his mind, and Dib just couldn't deal with it any more. He wanted the freedom he had before the voices started speaking in their sultry British accents, the freedom to believe that he was righteous and sane. But his face was being shoved against a mirror as the figment in its beautiful guise ran down a laundry list of every fault he had. Tak stroked Dib's hair in silence for a minute or two.

Then she finally said, "No." Dib's head whipped up with his eyes wide in shock, and Tak giggled once again.

"No, I don't think I will," Tak continued. "I quite like toying with your psyche. It's interesting, to say the very least. And besides, I'll stop when you make me stop."

"Let me guess, because I want you and everything you're telling me, I'll never make you stop," Dib sighed in defeat as his tears of hopelessness dripped down his face and probably onto the chair or his pants. Tak smiled with more mock-kindness and gently brushed his tears away.

"There there, darling. While everyone avoids you, you'll still have me," Tak purred tilting his face up again. She pressed a light, teasing kiss to his lips, and was gone. Dib immediately slumped over in his chair shoving his face into his hands in yet another gesture of defeat and hopelessness. His battle with his own insecurities, with the figment of Tak… he had lost, and lost pathetically. Suddenly, Dib got the feeling that there was more than one person in the room, and looked over to his doorway. He almost expected to see Tak again, but instead it was Gaz, wearing an expression of melancholy concern for the first time. Gaz… throughout Tak's constant torment of Dib, his little sister never avoided him. She continued to give a damn about him, presumably because nobody else would.

"… You heard everything, huh?" Dib asked.

"There isn't a lot I _don't _hear nowadays, Dib," Gaz replied with a ghost of a smirk. That smirk then fell as Gaz made her way across the room, knelt down to be level with Dib's sitting form and hugged him as tightly as she could. Dib stared absently at the space above Gaz's right shoulder- level with his chin, mind you- before giving into the human desire to hug back and embracing his sister as well.

It was then that he discovered his answer to all of Tak's questions.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, that's that. It's not finished, and I'm not sure where it's going to go after what I've got planned… I kind of just did this on a whim. A really weird, stupid, odd, sexy, and weird whim. I own nothing, and that includes Invader Zim as a whole, what inspired this fic (Soul Eater), any of the music I listened to while writing this fic, the program I used to type this all up, or the house I live in, which I was in when I wrote this up. I _do _own Zim's orange blood, most OOC-ness, Gaz's hidden kindness, Tak's sexy behavior, Dib's ability to throw chairs across entire rooms AND Dib's horny-ness for green skinned space babes. The innuendo could've been worse, y'know. That last scene was almost going to take place in the SHOWER. … With NUDITY.


End file.
